For villagers in Tharabari, a remote village located close to Balipara Reserve Forest (BRP) in Sonitpur district of Assam, India, the forest that surrounded them has always been full of treasures. Other than firewood, they forage the jungle for medicinal herbs like seni bon, a cure for acidity, durun ful, a headache remedy and dupor tenga used to treat kidney stones. Over the years, however, the forest became severely denuded. So did these treasures and their livelihoods. This also led to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and rise in human-elephant conflict. 

Could afforestation offer a solution? In 2017, Balipara Foundation, a non-profit working for community based environment conservation had transformed barren land in Udalguri in Assam into a full-fledged forest with local help. The transformed forest was soon restored as an active elephant corridor.  It also had experience running similar afforestation projects in other parts of the state. In Tharabari, however, when the Foundation initially explained the plan to afforest the area with indigenous trees, local attitudes initially proved to be an obstacle. Villagers feared that once this happened, their land would have to be handed over to the forest department. 

Lucky for them that a local student, 21-year-old Junali Basumatary, understood that perhaps by restoring traditional biodiversity to the area, local livelihoods could get a much-needed fillip. She persuaded Jermia, 43, a local farmer, to participate. Together, they convinced 150 villagers to join the drive and paved the way for the Foundation to start their work at Tharabari. 

The plantation drive had a three-fold strategy. “We started by offering them wages for the plantation that gave them livelihood. Then we asked them to build a community nursery from where we could purchase saplings,” explains Gautam Baruah, chief operations architect, Balipara Foundation. The project took off and today, planters and site supervisors earn between Rs 250-350 a day, considered a good livelihood here. Additionally, they also undergo training in multi-cropping and looking after the newly planted saplings.  

From 0.25 million in 2020, Jermia and friends have already reached the grand figure of 0.47 million saplings planted this year at Tharabari. The project however, is fully dependent on Balipara Foundation as of now. It needs time and perhaps more community support to become self-sustaining. 

Linking forest regeneration with livelihoods has ensured that villagers are not solely financially dependent on cultivating rain-fed paddy. It has also reawakened the community’s natural affinity for the forest. “It is unbelievable that we are managing to earn our livelihood without destroying the environment,” says Jernia. “The earth can certainly become a nicer place to stay if such efforts are replicated in other places!”

Author: Gurvinder Singh, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Balipara Foundation

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Uttarakhand farmer Krishan Singh Bargaley used to have a hard time getting good prices for the apples he so painstakingly grew. Although they were juicy and sweet, they would invariably develop unpalatable looking pockmarks on the skin. The culprit? A bacterial disease called apple blister that would spread with every rainfall to new sites. Aid came in an unusual form — a community radio that launched in the Nainital district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand in 2010, Kumaon Vani (which translates as our radio, our voice). From a programme on radio, 61-year-old Bargaley learned that a traditional mix of lime and water known as Chuna can help in stopping the disease and revive his plants. “We used to travel a long distance to Pantnagar to meet experts, now those experts dispense advice on radio,” says Krishan Singh. “And I was able to rescue my apples from the disease.”

Like Bargaley, a large number of villagers of Uttarakhand tune into Kumaon Vani t at 90.4 Mhz with reception reaching 500 villages in the state. This radio station was set up by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) in 2010 at Nainital, Uttarakhand, to promote sustainable agriculture and spread awareness on climate change, environment, health, science, education, gender and culture among the local villagers. Funded by charity TRISHA, (TERI’s research initiative), the radio station airs a daily diet of climate news and weather forecasts and also warns the villagers about impending landslides, melting glaciers and government-issued alerts, according to Sumit Bansal, coordinator of the station.

“We gather information from the villagers about the problems they are facing and tailor our shows to suit their needs by bringing in the necessary experts,” says Jitendra Raikwal, the radio station’s producer. Villagers are encouraged to phone in their farming-related problems. Experts provide solutions and offer advice to improve their livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, improved biodiversity and accessing government-run welfare schemes. Mohan Singh Karki, station manager at Kumaon Vani says: “The objective of this platform is to provide a solution to all the problems related to water, forest and land of these regions, people should immediately think about our radio for any problems that they face.”

Kumaon Vani’s information-packed programmes, heard by as many as 200,000 listeners, have had some impact. After a program on the impact of using excessive pesticides and insecticides, many farmers switched to using natural pesticides and began to understand the side effects of chemicals on their health and for the environment. Uttarakhand is an ecologically sensitive area, because its hilly terrain and melting glaciers cause frequent landslides. Kumaon Vani is helping increase disaster preparedness among the community by airing tips on how to build homes on slopes. With limited access to television and newspapers, Kumaon Vani radio has also been a key source of news during the Coronavirus pandemic. 

There are limitations to the use of  broadcast radio in hilly regions such as the Himalaya. Because of a low transmitter power of 100 watts, the radio is unable to reach villages in the valleys. Frequent power cuts sometimes interrupt the radio broadcast. Yet it has been successful in creating a sense of community among villagers living in isolated, media dark villages. 

On a typical day last month, Ganga Singh Bisht from Prabada village called in, asking for the selling price of crops in the local market (Mandi). Minutes later, Khushhal Singh from Sunkiya village called in just to appreciate how relevant the programme is to his life. “I rely on Kumaon Vani for farming related advice and weather updates,” says Munni Devi, a farmer from Nainital.  “It’s become a friend in need for me.”

Author: Kavitha Yarlagadda, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Uttarakhand banner image – Anurag Agnihotri/ Wikimedia Commons, Kumaon Vani
(Wikimedia License – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)

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Located in Alwar District, Rajasthan, Sariska Tiger Reserve used to be the hunting preserve of the Alwar estate. Spread over 880 square kilometres, this has always been an important connector of the Northern India tiger and leopard corridor. The reserve was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1958 and a tiger reserve under the Indian government’s Project Tiger in 1979. Unfortunately, the robust population of around 28 tigers in Sariska was totally wiped out by 2003-04. Most were poached by the infamous Sansar Chand, who probably relied on the support of the local population and the still existing villages within the reserve. Whatever be the case, this unfortunate turn of events led to the vanishing of the apex level predator in the food chain in this area.

Everything is interrelated in the jungle. The demise of the tiger altered the topography of the park, resulting in a sharp increase in the population of antlers, the erstwhile favorite food of the tiger in the park. This spotted deer that I have photographed looks pretty, batting its ridiculously long lashes, but without the king of the jungle, rising deer populations decimated grasslands and shrubs. The resultant forest degradation made the habitat even more difficult for wildlife to survive and thrive.

In 2009, Sariska became the first reserve in the world where tigers were successfully relocated. These were the first tigers this thorny, arid scrub forest had seen in years. The joy was, however, short-lived. The first reintroduced male tiger died after feeding on a poisoned cattle carcass and relocated tigresses did not breed as expected. Was the forest too stressed because of human activity for it to regenerate and tigers to flourish once more?

Things started looking up by 2012, when a female tigress named ST-2 was sighted with cubs. Sansar Chand died in 2014 and poaching activities slowed down. Better forest management techniques were subsequently enforced and big cats started making a slow comeback. Relocation of six villages from the core areas reduced human activity inside the jungle. This improved the habitat and gave tigers much needed space to move about freely. 

Sariska has become a success story with the tiger population going up steadily. 23 tigers live here now, including three cubs. The enforced lockdown has given an unexpected and happy boost to the conservation efforts at the Park. This year, I have seen several individuals, including ST9, ST3 and ST6. Since September 2021, ST21 and ST9 have been courting. Hopefully their courtship will herald some good news for conservationists here!

In architecture, the keystone at the top of an arch holds the arch together. Without the keystone, the whole arch and building surrounding collapses! Tigers are regarded as keystone species in their habitat. The return of tigers to Sariska has had an immeasurable impact on its biodiversity and ecological health. 

Today, the slow but steady repopulation of tigers in Sariska holds important lessons in the viability of such rewilding programs. Do radio collars around the neck hinder breeding success? Can rewilding be successful in forests with a lot of human activity? Are some tigers more efficient breeders than others? And what can be done to improve the survival rate of tiger cubs? Perhaps the answers to such questions will bring greater focus and success to species reintroduction programs across the world. 

In the meantime, Sariska has become my favourite weekend destination from Delhi to get a quick and wholesome experience of these majestic creatures in the wild!

Author: Devendra Singh, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Devendra Singh

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Truffle-fried oysters and oyster soup have long been favorites in Hong Kong’s bustling restaurants.  Oysters have also been grist to the city’s industrial mill: the process of lime-extraction (which dates back to the Tang dynasty) deriving calcium oxide for use in building, boat caulking and agriculture by burning shells or coral skeleton.

Many believe that these myriad appetites of the city which boasts the highest concentration of ultra high-net-worth individuals in the world have caused the rapid decline of its famed oyster reefs which once stretched across an estimated 1,000 km of coastline in the Pearl River Delta area.

A study conducted by University of Hong Kong’s Swire Institute of Marine Science and environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy has shown the enormous potential lost when we lose our native oyster reefs. An individual oyster can, the 2020 study found, filter up to 30 liters of water per hour and 500 liters per day at summer temperatures (the metabolism of oysters, like all marine invertebrates, increases with temperature).

Oyster reefs also provide shelter for crabs and snails, nursery habitats for juvenile fish and feeding grounds for larger fish. They help in denitrification by removing excess nutrients, help seagrass recovery and reduce the resuspension (erosion) of fine sediment, improving water clarity.

Associate Prof. Bayden Russell, Associate Director at The Swire Institute of Marine Science, the University of Hong Kong and involved in the study, explains, “we’re discovering how abundant and widespread these reefs must have been in the region. The level of impact on them has been surprising.” 

The project was a community endeavour, Russell adds. “We deployed a few trial reefs in a couple of places, and that has only been possible because we have been working with the farmers and fishermen.”

The Nature Conservancy has worked on shellfish reef restoration involving local fishing communities in Australia, United States and New Zealand, identifying suitable sites for restoration, creating oyster reef bases and scattering these areas with baby oysters and mussels for the last twenty years, with a typical project costing around US$64,000 for 400m² of reef. The organisation is also helping struggling oyster farmers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (and concomitant drops in restaurant oyster consumption) by purchasing five million surplus oysters to be used to seed native shellfish reefs.

Marine Thomas, Conservation Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy, Hong Kong, says when restoring shellfish reefs it is important to understand what is left, how healthy it is and whether the reef is still reproducing in the water. Reef restoration projects such as this are therefore not possible in every context. Oysters, importantly, need something hard to settle on (substrate), even if it is a limestone rock or other oyster shell, to attach to and keep growing. “This then guides us with the kind of restoration method we need to apply,” she says. “In Hong Kong, which has plentiful shellfish larvae, we can undertake restoration wherever we find suitable substrates.” 

A mature reef takes five years to grow; however a trial reef, established under a fish farm in Hong Kong’s Tolo Harbour in 2019, has been colonised by a variety of sea life, including crabs and sea urchins (which are not typically found in the region). In other locations where The Nature Conservancy operates, restored shellfish beds have helped reduce flooding and improve coastal water quality. And that’s good news for our environment, as well as Hong Kongers’ dinner plates.

Author: Bindu Gopal Rao, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: 1. Kyle Obermann, all others The Nature Conservancy

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We think of Delhi as a concrete jungle, which, indubitably, it is. However, the city is on the tail end of the Aravallis and their forests, many of which are, happily, in different stages of rewilding. Recent surveys of these forests show that they harbour an astonishingly rich diversity of wildlife with relatively high densities of mammals in non-protected areas. As someone who has been documenting life in these forests over the last few decades, I have, in recent times, chronicled many species that used to be rare to find and can now be spotted.

The growing awareness about the conservation and protection of Delhi’s urban forests is a welcome breath of fresh air for conservationists and wildlife lovers like me. Much more needs to be done but I am happy that in my years as a chronicler of the city’s animals, I have got to see some of these amazing species return to their lost habitats.

Author: Devendra Singh, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Devendra Singh

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In the 16th century, when the Portuguese sailed to the Arabian shores, they were enamoured by the plentiful, fresh seafood available along Oman’s 3,000 km coastline. Today, the sultanate of Oman is looking to revive this historic industry to reduce its dependence on the declining oil sector. “Fish farming has an untapped potential due to Oman’s geographical location. Agriculture and Fisheries is the second largest industry, therefore, it is natural that the government considered investing in it to decrease the reliance on oil and gas”, says Rumaitha Al Busaidi, an Omani environmentalist. The idea is sound, but its implementation has so far been marred by the lack of advanced technological implementations in Omani fisheries. Farmers still rely on the indigenous Falaj irrigation system, developed in 500 AD and used till date, which carries water from the natural springs to the mountain villages for farming and aquaculture. While it might have worked in the past, today this is problematic.

“Our fish production quality suffers because the water used for fish production and farming gets mixed with the saline water from the ocean, dramatically decreasing our income”, complains Khalifa Al Sahabi, a fish farmer in Bidiyah town in the Sharqiyah region.

To address this issue, Al Busaidi has introduced the concept of integrated Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in aquaculture farms. These use mechanical and biological filters to reuse the water in production and minimise water resources for organic aquatic farming. “RAS technology also protects the marine environment”, she explains, “by restricting the effluent that reaches the ocean.” The Oman government had implemented this technology initially for the production of Tiger prawns. Food lovers and industry experts laud their size and quality. RAS technology has helped in increasing the production rate of these prawns even as it has made intensive fish production compatible with environmental sustainability. In May 2021, Oman invested in the construction of a 8,000 hectare aquaculture farm: the second largest in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

A number of barriers had to be overcome for the RAS technology to be implemented. Costs of installing temperature controls in the desert kingdom are high and it has been tricky to persuade local farmers to choose this newer technology over their traditional aquaculture methods. It has taken extensive educational drives by the Omani government to finally develop 21 integrated tilapia farms, one shrimp farm, and one marine cage farm in the country. Today, the figures speak for themselves. The production of tilapia has leapt from three tonnes in 2013 and five in 2014 to 20 tonnes in 2015 and 77 tonnes in 2017.

“With the help of RAS, we have successfully enhanced the fish quality by 66 percent across the country in the last six years”, says Nasser Abdullah, Assistant Project Manager of the Al-Wusta fish farming project. Next on the cards: using RAS technology for salmon production. While energy intensive, this sustainable aquaculture model is ensuring safer fishing techniques and lowered food miles for fish consumers across the Middle East.

Author: Rahma Khan, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Oman banner image – Richard Bartz/ Wikimedia Commons, Muscat fish markets – StellarD and Khalifa Al Sahabi
(Wikimedia License – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)

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Once upon a time in India’s Northeast, there was a vast forest through which a river flowed. Until the mid-1980s, its grasslands were home to rare and endangered one-horned rhinoceroses, tigers, elephants and pygmy hogs. However, it became an arena of violent socio-political conflict when the local Bodos began agitating for a separate state. Forest management took a back seat and by 2000, Manas was almost completely stripped of its rich flora and fauna, including all its 100 rhinos. It was at this time that the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) along with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) intervened to help these threatened animals. “While there were no rhinos left in Manas National Park, our assessment was that it was still capable of being a healthy habitat for rhinos,” says Vivek Menon, executive director, WTI. In conjunction with the Bodoland Territorial Council and the forest department of Assam, WTI-IFAW created a unique programme in 2002 to revive Manas and its biodiversity, embodied by the one-horned rhino.

“We set up India’s first rescue and rehabilitation centre, Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), near a protected area – in this case, Kaziranga,” says Menon. Here, orphaned rhino calves are hand-reared (some even bottle-fed) for up to three years. “Then we transport them to Manas, allow a one-year period for acclimatisation in controlled but wild conditions and then release them into the jungle,” he says. The presence of the one-horned rhino, the largest herbivore of the grasslands, is a sign that the habitat is in good ecological health. “This augurs well for smaller, lesser-known grassland animals such as pygmy hogs,” he says. For the rhino’s continued survival, its grassland habitat was protected and rewilded.

“Unlike other species that have adapted to diverse habitats, rhinos can only survive in grasslands, that too on very specific grasses,” Menon explains.

In 2011, Manas National Park was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger and was commended for its efforts in preservation. Last month, the 12th annual camera trapping survey conducted in the forest recorded a three-fold increase in the number of adult tigers – an indicator species for forests rich in biodiversity, in the park. The return of Manas’ wildlife, including rhino conservation efforts, has positive connotations not only for wildlife conservation but also for the communities around the protected areas. For the Bodos, and the Assamese, the Manas turnaround symbolises a resurgence of their ethnic pride, which has taken a battering in the last few decades.

“When we began this project, I never doubted nature’s resilience for a minute,” Menon says. Today, Manas represents hope – hope that it is possible to reverse some of the depredations of poaching, social unrest and climate change on nature; hope that in spite of, and with some help from, humankind, the law of the jungle can prevail once more.

Author: Geetanjali Krishna, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Rhino banner image – Zahir Abbas/ Wikimedia Commons, 1. Gitartha Bordoloi/ Wikimedia Commons, 2. Kaushik Saikia/ Wikimedia Commons, 3. Sashanka for WTI-IFAW, 4. Biswajit Baruah for WTI-IFAW, 5. Julia Cumes for WTI-IFAW
(Wikimedia License – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)

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In Gangavaram village in the south Indian state of Telangana, G Anjamma alternates layers of cow-dung ash and fresh neem leaves in a basket. In each layer, she places seeds for long-term preservation. Then she seals it with cow dung and clay. “Seeds can be stored for up to three years this way,” she says. As the community seed banker of her village, her house is stacked with big barrels of these seed baskets. This is precious cargo, for all these seeds are indigenous and better suited for rain-fed farming, crucial in a region prone to droughts. Farmers, mostly Dalit, lower caste women from surrounding villages, source seeds from Anjamma. “There is no guarantee how seeds from the market will grow. The market mostly sells commercial crops, and there is little variety,” she says, showing the several regional and national awards she had won for preserving biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources.

Anjamma is part of a movement led by 5,000 women initiated by the Deccan Development Society (DDS) in 1983. Women farmers gather in ‘sanghams’, groups of varying sizes, to learn sustainable farming. They grow multiple heirloom crops instead of cash crops like peanuts and cotton which need expensive inputs of irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. “This ensures we don’t have to buy anything from the market to keep our children and ourselves healthy,” says Anjamma. “Our survival also doesn’t depend on prices set by the market,” she adds. It has also ensured that she and other Dalit woman farmers are not at the mercy of government dole-outs, volatile market prices or vagaries wrought by climate change.

Their food and seed sovereignty has also given them resilience to survive the pandemic-induced economic crisis. The sustainable agricultural practices that women like Anjamma promote, allow farmers to practice multi-cropping.

“I grow 25 varieties of food crops in one acre. Even if ten fail, I still have enough to feed my family and sell the excess in the market,” says Mogullama, another Dalit farmer from the region.

The movement has now spread across 75 villages. Office bearers of DDS estimate that at least 5,000 acres in the district are free of chemical inputs. Every January since 2002, the society organizes a month-long biodiversity festival in which a parade of bullock carts showcases the variety of heirloom millets grown in the area.

The DDS model has been replicated in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo and elsewhere in Western Africa. “We started collaborating with women farmers in Africa as their geology and climate conditions are similar to those found in our region,” says CN Suresh from the society. DDS is also part of the All India Millet Sisters Network, launched in 2016, which promotes the use of millets amongst women farmers. In 2019, DDS won the Equator Prize for its holistic approach to climate change, food security, and empowering marginalised women and in 2020, the Society won the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Award: “in recognition of the work of DDS women to rehabilitate degraded lands and promote biodiversity.”

Meanwhile, DDS’ annual festival this year has seen enthusiastic participation. “Even from men!” exclaims I Mollumma, a Dalit woman farmer and the official videographer for the festival. “Perhaps the pandemic has reminded them of the importance of preserving our indigenous biodiversity in farming…”

Author: Karthikeyan Hemalatha, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Karthikeyan Hemalatha

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For years, locals in the remote district of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra have supplemented their agrarian livelihoods by poaching the Indian pangolin, a species given the highest protection under India’s Wildlife Protection Act. Through his non-profit Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra, Katdare, locally known as Bhau, had tried everything from organising awareness campaigns to training police to identify poached pangolin parts.

A Ratnagiri local himself, Bhau dropped out of college and has chosen to learn from the field since 1992. He began to wonder, through his immersion in local communities, if creating an emotional connection with the pangolins in the minds of the locals could be the key to finally putting an end to poaching.
“In many ways, conservation is the essence of all religion,” he says.

In 2020, he enlisted the help of the temple priest in the Dugwe village of Ratnagiri. Together they created an event celebrating the scaly mammal – “Khawlotsav” or Pangolin Festival – coinciding with the World Pangolin Day that falls on the third Saturday of February.

Bhau asked toymakers from a nearby town to make a large effigy of the animal, which was then hidden in a deep thicket. When villagers found it, they bedecked it in the finery usually reserved for the village deity and brought it back to the temple with great fanfare. Traditional dances were performed in its honour, and prayers were dedicated to the animals that ate the ants and termites that often infested locals’ crops. Villagers even prayed for better sense and wisdom to prevail upon animal traffickers and poachers. The pangolin replica was then installed in the temple, beside the idol of the village god and finally, it was placed on an elegant scarlet palanquin and paraded from house to house.

In the past, Bhau’s team had made people swear oaths to protect the species and raise awareness not only in their region, but also in neighbouring villages.
“At the end of the festival, they all swore the same oath again, and I could sense a shift,” he recalls.

A few months ago, someone sent him a video of the villagers’ reaction to a pangolin that had strayed into the village. In the past, it would have been killed without a thought. This time, however, when someone suggested they kill it as usual and sell its scales, a village elder reminded them of their oath to protect pangolins.

On a recent visit to the Dugwe village temple, Bhau discovered that the priest – his old ally – had placed a picture of a pangolin permanently next to the deity. The discovery has made him hopeful that their festival might become a tradition.

As he gears up for World Pangolin Day this year, the 60-year-old barefoot conservationist aims to continue fostering lasting connections between men and animals through India’s rich religious and cultural traditions. To advance the cause of sea turtle conservation in a neighbouring district, he plans to organise a drama performance about the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu, who took the form of a turtle in his second incarnation.
“If we get them to think of turtles as incarnations of their favourite god, maybe we’d have a shot at protecting them too,” Bhau says.

Authors: Geetanjali Krishna and Snighdha Bansal, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra

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Imagine being inside a house, a smoky hearth at its centre around which the family huddles for warmth with snow falling in flurries outside. This is how people in Lahaul and Spiti, the remote, high altitude region in Himachal Pradesh, India, spend over seven months of their lives every year. Their need for fuelwood, a scarce but highly polluting resource, is undeniable, given that minimum temperatures in winters dip to minus 30 degrees centigrade. Which is what makes the inexpensive renewable energy innovations developed and implemented here by Ecosphere Spiti, a social enterprise with a passion for eco conservation, responsible mountain travel and adventure, so important.

Ecosphere Spiti uses principles of solar passive architecture: south-facing, direct solar gain windows and insulated floors and walls, to trap the sun’s heat in Spitian homes. Over the years, people here have noted that these tweaks ensure that even when it is minus 30 degrees outside, the inside temperature remains around ten degrees without artificial heating. On average, passive solar rooms reduce a household’s fuel wood consumption to half, leading to savings of USD $130-260, depending on family size. They have also developed solar greenhouses — polythene-covered structures on wooden frames with a ventilator and door, in which villagers can grow food even when it is snowing outside. These ensure that villagers have a supply of spinach, coriander, onions and garlic – not just to consume, but also to sell.

Both these solar technologies make a perceptible improvement in the local quality of life, and cost relatively little to implement. Solar passive houses cost about USD $700 to construct, while a greenhouse can be made for about USD $400.

“While Spiti urgently needs better infrastructure, we have also seen how its vulnerable ecology is being adversely affected by its very creation,” Ishita Khanna, co-founder of Ecosphere Spiti, explains. Ecosphere Spiti uses tourism as a funding mechanism: operating local tours, a café, B&B and a successful volunteer tourism programme to subsidize its development programmes. “Some time ago, volunteers helped build an artificial glacier in the village Demul to recharge the groundwater,” says Khanna. “In fact, they’ve built most of our greenhouses as well!”

Now Ecosphere is studying the potential of cost-effective solar water-pumping technologies to aid people in mountain-top villages, who have to walk long distances downhill to collect even drinking water.

While the need for plentiful direct sunlight limits the replicability of Ecosphere Spiti’s innovative solar technologies, they serve as a model for sustainable development projects in ecologically fragile regions. As importantly the project shows that development goals need not be in conflict with the urgent task of protecting the natural environment.

Author: Geetanjali Krishna, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Spiti valley banner image: Carlos Adampol Galindo/ Wikimedia Commons, 1. Geetanjali Krishna, 2. 3. 4. Ecosphere
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